Our story

A Dodger coach, a six-year-old, and a promise

In 1984, Mark Cresse was entering his 11th season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, working in the bullpen under Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. He would go on to spend 25 seasons with the Dodgers (1974–1998), coach in five World Series — winning World Championships in 1981 and 1988 — and be selected to coach the National League All-Star team five times.

That same year, his six-year-old son Brad was falling in love with baseball. Coaching the Dodgers meant Mark couldn't coach his son's youth team — and when he saw the coaching his son was getting, he decided something had to be done. He founded the Mark Cresse School of Baseball to guarantee his own son the best coaching he could hire — and opened it to everyone else's kids too. The first camp ran at the Robinwood Little League complex in Huntington Beach, the only baseball camp operating in Orange County at the time.

It worked. The camp became part of the baseball childhood of thousands of Southern California kids — campers who barely knew how to put a glove on, campers learning to play better, and campers with exceptional talent learning to excel.

The philosophy

The Mark Cresse School of Baseball is an intensive fundamental training program — not a team-oriented, competitive "winning!" environment. We teach fundamentals in a fun, disciplined, non-competitive atmosphere, so young players return to their leagues better prepared and more confident.

Two founding beliefs still run the camp: quality instruction requires qualified, experienced coaches — ask any camp, "who will actually be coaching my child each day?" — and if a professional coach's name is on the program, he'd better run it. Mark organizes the camp, coaches campers personally, and takes a hands-on interest in each ballplayer's development.

To confirm Current staff bios & roles will be published here after owner review.